1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital hearing aids and, more particularly, to programming or upgrading hearing aid devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Simply put, a hearing aid is basically a sound amplifier to be placed at or in the ear canal to help people with peripheral hearing loss. However, the actual implementation of how the sound is amplified can be extremely complicated. The delicacy of the amplification is due to the fact that the human hearing process is accomplished through a remarkably complex system, and is designed to handle a very complex hearing environment. For example, a person with normal hearing can detect either a very soft or endure a very loud sound with a range of sound pressure level over 100 dB. This is accomplished through a compressive amplification scheme which amplifies the soft sound and compresses the loud sound. Further, in a very noisy environment, such as a cocktail party, a person's hearing functioning normally can not only identify the direction of a conversing sound source, but also selectively filter the sound to perceive speech signals. This example briefly introduces three of the main fields of today's hearing aid research and development. These three fields are: compressive amplification, noise reduction and detection of sound source location. In the case of hearing impairment, these inherent functions are typically damaged and thus need to be compensated. With today's technological progress in digital signal processing based hearing aids (i.e., digital hearing aids), the development in these areas has been quite rapid in recent years.
Unfortunately, however, the rapid development presents a problem with upgrading existing hearing aids. Conventionally, once hearing aids are manufactured or fitted, they are fixed for all practical purposes. Usually this means that for a user to take advantage of recent technological advance that have occurred since they purchased their hearing aid, they must purchase a new hearing aid. In the case of digital hearing aids, the existing hearing aid could perhaps be alternatively returned to the hearing aid manufacturer to be re-programmed and thus upgraded to include recent technological advances. However, manufacturers normally prefer to sell a new hearing aid as opposed to upgrading older versions. In any case, there are no means currently available to promptly and conveniently upgrade hearing aid devices without the heavy involvement of manufacturers to take the old hearing devices back.
Thus, there is a need for improved techniques for updating existing hearing aid devices.